News Archive for January 24, 2014

WHEN HE WASN'T designing rides for Disneyland, engineer Dick Ponzi was reading the Whole Earth Catalog and dreaming about getting back to the land. This was Southern California in the 1960s: You can almost hear the soundtrack. Mr. Ponzi and ...

Attendees of the Washington Auto Show, which kicked off this week, will notice something strange among the shiny new machinery: a 50-year-old racing car with a nose that goes on forever. The 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe with serial ...

Bob Arum, the chief executive of Top Rank Promotions, has groomed some of the most popular, top-earning non-heavyweight boxers of this generation, including Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao.

Frigid temperatures in many parts of the country are contributing to soaring demand for propane, kicking off a surge in prices and a scramble to get the liquid gas used in agriculture and home heating to parts of the Midwest and South.

STOCKHOLM—Mille Markovic, a convicted criminal who became a household name in Sweden for his role in a book about Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, has been shot dead near his home in northern Stockholm, according to a lawyer who has ...

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Friday freed a group of Roman Catholic nonprofit organizations from complying with the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive provisions while they pursue a challenge to the law before a federal appeals court.

WASHINGTON—The percentage of public-sector workers who belong to unions fell last year but rose in the private sector, as unions scored gains in construction, manufacturing, health-care and food service industries.

Several years ago, while observing a parenting group in Minnesota, I was struck by a confession one of the women made to her peers: She didn't really care that her husband did the dishes after dinner. Sure, it was swell of him, and she had ...

Given the expectations it began with, this Knicks season has been dismal. Going into Friday, the team had lost five consecutive games, a skid that had dropped their record to 15-27 and put their coach back on the hot seat.

On Friday night, when Carmelo Anthony electrified Madison Square Garden with a team-record 62 points, it served as a reminder of why the Knicks' brass moved heaven and earth to deal for the superstar back in 2011. With owner James Dolan's ...

One day at Pulaski High School in Milwaukee, a fight broke out between two students. The staff separated them, but one of the students, a young woman named Marianna, refused to relent. She continued to fight—now with the staff—and to cause ...

BANGKOK—Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that contentious elections set for February 2 can be postponed, adding further pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government to delay the vote, as antigovernment protests ...

EL PUIG, Spain—There's no spectacle in the world quite like this tiny town's San Pedro Nolasco fiesta. Every year on the last Sunday in January, townsfolk serve up rice, beans and turnips from steaming caldrons. Dancers whirl about in ...

Friday's matchup between the Nets and visiting Dallas Mavericks offered its share of historical backstories.Nets coach Jason Kidd won a title with current Nets guard Jason Terry on the Mavericks in 2011, and current Mavericks guard Vince ...

National Football League officials and fans of slushy football might get their wish: It could be a white Super Bowl.Early forecasts for the big game, scheduled for Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., call for a 30% to 50% ...

PRINCETON, N.J.—Sixteen-year-old Megan Crowley lay facedown on an operating table last June as her surgeon tried to straighten her spine, badly contorted by a genetic disease that nearly killed her as a little girl.

The Brooklyn Nets revealed a new alternate home jersey on Friday, and it doesn't look like it's made exclusively for basketball.Whether that has to do with the sleeves—which seem out of place on any basketball uniform not worn by the ...

During the 230s B.C., Attalos I of Pergamon in Asia Minor decisively defeated marauding tribes of Gauls. Known for their muscular physique and the feral appearance imparted by the thick, manelike locks of hair they washed with water and ...

Are we moral by nature or as a result of learning and culture? Are men and women "hard-wired" to think differently? Do our genes or our schools make us intelligent? These all seem like important questions, but maybe they have no good ...

BARCELONA—In the sulfurous debate over the future of Spain's wealthy Catalonia region, Xavier Sala-i-Martin is the most notable and quotable member of a self-styled truth squad of pro-independence Catalan economists.

With the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi approaching, a nefarious term is making headlines: "black widow," the label given to female suicide bombers from Chechnya and other rebellious areas in the North Caucasus. Russian police are reportedly ...

DAVOS, Switzerland—Middle East powers on opposing sides of Syria's civil war used an international conference here to demand the removal of all foreign fighters from the battlefield, while U.S. officials worked to dispel the notion that ...

NEWARK, N.J.—The Devils still had one more game to play Friday before venturing over the Hudson and Harlem rivers to tangle with the Rangers in an outdoor game Sunday at Yankee Stadium. And if anyone was more excited about Friday's game ...

Apple Inc. is laying the groundwork for an expanded mobile-payments service, leveraging its growing base of iPhone and iPad users and the hundreds of millions of credit cards on file through its iTunes stores.

U.S. stocks tumbled Friday to their biggest loss in more than seven months, extending a global selloff that investors fear signals turmoil to come as financial markets adjust to a pullback in central-bank stimulus.

MELBOURNE, Australia—When Rafael Nadal plays for his second Australian Open title on Sunday evening, he'll have everything in his favor. A 12-0 record against his opponent, Stanislas Wawrinka. A total of 13 major titles compared to zero for ...

JAGGED, SNOW-CAPPED peaks have served as Santiago's backdrop since the city was founded in 1541 by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. But there are times when you might not know it—pollution and the city's location in a valley have ...

It has been two years since El Bulli, the groundbreaking Spanish restaurant helmed by Ferran Adrià, served its last meal. On Saturday, diners and those who never scored reservations will get a glimpse into the chef's thinking, seeing his ...

Click to view slideshowThe front row 'Fresh Prince,' a gray flannel menagerie and more1. The tailors of Savile Row and London's finest hatters, boot-makers and shirtmakers presenting their wares at the Cabinet War Rooms—a recreation of ...

So the president's State of the Union address is Tuesday night, and it's always such a promising moment, a chance to wake everyone up and say "This I believe" and "Here we stand." The networks are focused and alert, waiting to be filled ...

ATTENDING A FOOTBALL game isn't quite what it used to be. Back in the day, you could grill a few bratwursts in the parking lot then mosey into the stadium with a backpack of supplies (poncho, nuts, more brats).

Hong KongErik Prince—ex-Navy SEAL, ex-CIA spy, ex-CEO of private-security firm Blackwater—calls himself an "accidental tourist" whose modest business boomed after 9/11, expanded into Iraq and Afghanistan, and then was "blowtorched by ...

In my three months as a senator, I have already seen firsthand that partisan debates in Washington can distract us from uniting around common-sense actions to address our most urgent needs. I always try to remember the old African saying: ...

The federal program that brings foreign au pairs to the U.S. will come under review this year, as the State Department weighs better monitoring and other protections for the mostly young females who provide child care to American families.

One thing Super Bowl security has not weighed in on: face paint. Taylor Albin, "Boss Clown" at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, explains how to apply team colors so they last all four quarters

When I grow up, I want to be the guy who can't miss. You know this guy, right? You've definitely envied this guy, unless of course you were this guy, in which case you've never forgotten being that guy. In fact, I was this guy once. It was ...

BEAUTY MAY BE in the eye of the beholder, but, in 1921, a group of activist Minnesota architects known as the "Architects' Small House Service Bureau" decided they beheld things with unimpeachable accuracy. Take this before-and-after ...

This weekend, a new era in American car racing will kick off, and it is going to be loud.The inaugural Tudor United SportsCar Championship begins at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a 24-hour sports-car race on a 3.56-mile road course at the ...

"The first words that come out my clients' mouths are, 'We'd love to have a real old house. We just can't find one,' " said architect Russell Versaci, who runs a Middleburg, Va.-based practice. "And the second thing they say is, 'We are so ...

NEW OLD HOUSE believers love to point out that their homes blow away actual historic dwellings when it comes to livability. To test this truism, we asked a pair of expert analysts to compare the floor plans of "the Amsterdam," a Dutch ...

BERLIN—The son of a Nazi-era art dealer whose vast trove of art has been in legal limbo since it was seized by German prosecutors two years ago has for the first time signaled his willingness to return pieces that may have been looted from ...

In "Cash for Kidneys" (Review, Jan. 18) the economist authors recommend establishing a market for human organs to alleviate the organ shortage in the U.S. It is a tragedy when people die while waiting for a lifesaving transplant, but paying ...

The little-known company that owns and operates the West Virginia chemical facility where Thursday's spill occurred consists of multiple merged entities controlled by partners with ties to Pennsylvania and Florida, records show.

Peggy Noonan focuses on the wrong culprit ("Our Selfish 'Public Servants,'" Declarations, Jan. 18). Selfishness is the motivating force of the free-market system. It is not something that can be eliminated or even significantly decreased, ...

It is clear in Kimberley Strassel's "IRS Targeting and 2014" (Potomac Watch, Jan. 17) why Democrats "went all in on keeping a new IRS rule" that provides cover for continued targeting of conservative 501(c)(4) groups, but less clear as to ...

Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to ...

After reading "The WWI Book Barrage" (Arena, Jan. 10), I think it's important to remind Americans about some facts about World War I.While the number of American deaths in World War II were about four times higher than in World War I, it is ...

"I HAVE A dual life," said Charlotte Stockdale, the longtime fashion director of i-D, who recently left the British glossy to join the Moscow-based art and fashion magazine Garage. Ms. Stockdale, 43, a former model who started styling in ...

KIEV, Ukraine—President Viktor Yanukovych pledged to stop "radicals" who have been protesting against his regime for more than two months, even as he outlined limited potential concessions Friday that appear unlikely to appease ...

SITUATED ON A BUSY corner in New York's East Village, Calliope is a particular brand of bistro. The restaurant's airy, window-lined dining room makes a refreshingly unpretentious backdrop for the high-level seasonal French cooking that ...

STEREOSCOPY—a method of creating a 3-D effect using two side-by-side images—was all the rage in the mid-1800s. Now a new iPhone accessory called Poppy leverages this vintage technique to let you capture 3-D photos and video with a ...

IN ITALY, DRIED pasta is just as highly regarded as fresh—and a far cry from the anemic strands that pass for spaghetti in supermarkets stateside. Happily, a growing number of American producers are taking up a venerable pasta-making (and ...

A German court on Friday ordered Google Inc. to remove private images of former Formula One racing boss Max Mosley from its German search engine, the latest decision against the Internet giant in a broader fight pitting privacy against free ...

NEW YORK—When masked gunmen robbed $6 million worth of cash and jewelry from a Lufthansa Airlines cargo hold at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1978, investigators immediately suspected the mafia.

THERE ARE FEW aromas more comforting than that of apple pie. Some say it's the butter, some the cinnamon, some the apples themselves, but I'm convinced it's the memory of past pies and their many poignant associations. It's hard to resist ...

YOU'D THINK A sneaker equipped with steel spikes would appeal primarily to hard-core runners intent on jogging outdoors, no matter how slippery the terrain. But as a polar vortex grips much of the nation, the Certo Bugrip—which offers ...

THINK YOU DON'T like IPAs? Too bitter, too intense? Many are. Tongue-numbingly resinous and paint-thinner strong, today's double and triple India Pale Ales have a few devoted, if masochistic, fans. But to those of us more interested in ...

MELBOURNE, Australia—The story of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal remains the same.Despite a new racket, new coach, and newfound confidence, Federer couldn't put a new spin on his rivalry with Nadal at this year's Australian Open. On a cool ...

Hemsedal, NorwayFor the ninth time in his 33-year career as a soccer manager, Bob Bradley is getting to know a whole new squad of players. But until this month, when he took charge of an obscure Norwegian club called Stabaek, that process ...

DESPITE ITS appearance in countless storybooks (Three Bears, I'm looking at you), a bowl of porridge isn't exactly the stuff of most youthful fantasies. It certainly wasn't my breakfast of choice as a kid. I craved Lucky Charms and Fruity ...

ROME—A small bomb exploded near a French religious establishment in central Rome early Friday, damaging three cars and some windows in surrounding buildings, a spokesman for the Carabinieri military police said.

The price tag for a vast new train station being built for the Long Island Rail Road beneath Midtown Manhattan could top $10 billion and its completion date could stretch into the next decade, officials said.

RAISING THE DEBT CEILING IS GETTING CHEAPER Cheaper for the White House, that is. In 2011 Republicans were able to extract the dear departed sequester spending limits in exchange for giving President Obama the increase he sought in federal ...

KIEV, Ukraine—President Viktor Yanukovych, under growing pressure from Western leaders, proposed to free detained protesters in return for a temporary cease-fire but amid deep uncertainty that antigovernment demonstrators would accept the ...

Asian markets moved lower Friday, but most failed to follow through on the large declines seen in other global emerging markets overnight sparked by anxiety over the ability of developing nations to prop up their economies.

Bill de Blasio, New York's new left-wing mayor, this week experienced a demonstration of the hazards of divisive politicking. On Tuesday the city was blanketed with a foot of global warming. A major snowstorm is always a political event, as ...

The five artists nominated for Best Rap Album at this year's Grammy Awards (Sun, 8 p.m. ET, CBS) have mentioned seemingly every athlete from Dennis Rodman to Serena Williams. The Count examined every word from their nominated albums to see ...

WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve on Friday gave the eight largest U.S. banks additional direction on preparing for potential failure, outlining more detailed expectations for the firms' crisis planning as part of regulator's postcrisis ...

At 71, Isabel Allende has lived in the United States for the past 26 years, but the Chilean novelist exudes the exoticism of another place and era. Her colorful, hacienda-style house, filled with eclectic antiques and heirlooms, could just ...

As a female, Filipino-American entrepreneur and CEO, Sheila Lirio Marcelo doesn't fit most corner-office stereotypes.When her company, Care.com Inc., began trading Friday following its initial public offering, Ms. Marcelo joined another ...

The brokerage industry's self-regulator plans to seek a ban on settlements of damage claims by clients against brokers that include a promise by the client not to oppose erasing the case from the broker's public record.

GOTHENBURG, Sweden—China's Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. is expanding a joint venture with Volvo Car Corp. to design a subcompact car that meets safety and quality standards in Western markets where Chinese brands have struggled to gain a ...

Platinum proved less than precious last year, falling 10%. Despite a good start to 2014, its prospects still look somewhat shabby.A 5% price rise this year has as much to do with the prospect of supply snafus, as to rising demand. In South ...

BUENOS AIRES—Argentina devalued its peso Thursday in a move that raised fears of a financial crisis in South America's second-biggest economy and recalled the meltdown a decade ago that sent the country on its long decline from a darling of ...

BEIJING—Wal-Mart Stores Inc. explained how products reach its shelves in China, answering accusations by the country's major state-owned television broadcaster that the retailer seeks to boost profits by violating permit procedures.

HONG KONG—China criticized a decision by a U.S. judge that rekindled a longtime accounting dispute between the two countries and hammered the shares of U.S.-traded Chinese companies, even as China said it would negotiate with U.S. ...

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s board delivered a strong endorsement of Chief Executive James Dimon, boosting his pay 74% for a year in which the nation's largest bank agreed to more than $20 billion in legal payouts and suffered its first ...

President Barack Obama plans to make income inequality and economic mobility central elements in next week's State of the Union address and a focus of his remaining time in office. But how, exactly, the Democratic Party intends to talk ...

BERLIN—In a redrawn political landscape dominated by an alliance between Germany's two main parties, Chancellor Angela Merkel's most prominent opponent is now a 66-year-old former communist with a silver tongue and dreams of finally ending ...

Investors are growing frustrated with Samsung Electronics. As long-predicted competitive threats eat away at its smartphone dominance, the company needs investor-friendly policies to get its share price off the floor.

Last year, "The Rite of Spring"—perhaps the most primal creative act of the 20th century—turned 100. A strange work with no discernible precedent, the ballet put before Paris a series of pagan rituals that culminated in a human sacrifice: A ...

Among the handful of iconic buildings that survive from classical antiquity, the Parthenon, perched atop the Athenian acropolis, comes uniquely freighted with meaning. Ostensibly built as a temple to the goddess Athena, the Parthenon has ...

In just over two hours in the leafy backyard of a Hollywood movie studio chief's home Thursday night, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised more than $600,000 for his reelection bid, according to a person who attended the event.

BUENOS AIRES—Argentina's government allowed its beleaguered peso to slide farther against the U.S. currency on Friday, saying it would ease limits on the purchase of dollars to stem a possible currency crisis like the one that hammered the ...

In the strange world created by the government's highly irrational policies toward the auto industry, car makers got some good news-bad news this week. Their new minicars were found to be sadly lagging on safety by an independent testing ...

In 2014, as we mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, major commemorations will be held across Europe—even in Germany, which, though somewhat uneasy about the tone of these events, has sought to emphasize the European Union's ...

There is no ignoring it: U.S. wireless prices are falling. That could throw up an extra hurdle for Sprint's deal-making ambitions.The No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers is considering whether to bid for No. 4 player T-Mobile US. But ...

Dilma Rousseff, flew to the global capitalist summit in Davos, Switzerland, for the first time as Brazil's president and delivered a plea for foreign investment, underscoring the urgency of finding antidotes for its sluggish economy.

WASHINGTON—An effort by House lawmakers to overhaul immigration policy, which seemed all but dead for much of last year, is about to be revived and take center stage in Congress, with a new push by House Republican leaders and a fresh pitch ...

Chef Marc Murphy has moved in a new culinary direction with his recently opened Kingside in Midtown. "It's new American, which is a fun, creative thing," he said. "Landmarc is a bistro and Ditch Plains is a fish shack, so here I get to go ...

Giants tackle David Diehl announced his retirement on Friday, 11 years after he joined the franchise as a fifth-round draft pick in 2003.Diehl, 33, was one of the most versatile and durable players on the Giants during a decorated career ...

Commercially operated home-delivery drones have attracted a great deal of attention. A national debate began after a "60 Minutes" segment in which Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos speculated about using drones to deliver merchandise to ...

The end of January brings two certainties: another 49 days until spring and the president's State of the Union address. In the past, the president often used to palm off this constitutionally mandated chore to a clerk; nowadays he (or she) ...

Everyone's preparing for the Super Bowl, even the Friars. You know, that merry band of actors and comedians who roast people—in lieu, one supposes, of vegetables and chicken—on a regular basis. This year's roast takes place on Thursday, at ...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is laying off about 2,300 employees at its Sam's Club warehouse unit to help thin the ranks of middle managers in its weakest stores, marking the club chain's biggest round of job cuts in four years.

Two of the world's largest drink and snack makers are pouring billions of dollars into their Mexican operations, sending powerful signals the country is too lucrative to avoid despite hefty new "fat'' taxes on sugary drinks and high-calorie ...

Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. has reached an agreement to buy Hong Kong's Wing Hang Bank Ltd. for about US$5 billion, a deal now being reviewed by Hong Kong regulators, a person familiar with the matter said.

OSLO—Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA said Friday it is in talks with Boeing Co. about compensation for problems that have bedeviled its small fleet of 787 Dreamliners and is confident the U.S. company will take responsibility.

New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney on Friday called on Gov. Chris Christie's administration to explain why it fired without public notice an important contractor that processed housing grants for superstorm Sandy victims.

NEW DELHI—Indian politicians and women's rights activists have reacted with anger and revulsion after village leaders in West Bengal allegedly ordered the gang rape of a 20-year-old woman early this week as punishment for her dating a man ...

East Side chiropractor Steven Schram isn't your typical spine man. The intellectual adventurer has a Ph.D. in chemistry and a passion for computer programming. But what really sets him apart? The doctor is accepting Bitcoin, the nascent ...

This Valentine's Day, I am calling for a revolution.An uprising. A revolt against the annual madness.Cupid doesn't respond well to orders. Love and romance don't thrive on command. And yet every year couples are told they must all go out to ...

SAN FRANCISCO—New questions were raised about the construction quality of one of the nation's most vital commuter links when engineers who worked on a Bay-area bridge that replaced one damaged in a 1989 earthquake said Friday that bridge ...

General Motors Co. on Friday named a new manufacturing chief to oversee its global production and factories in a continuing shift of top executives, and took another step toward shrinking its troubled operation in South Korea.

A federal judge ruled Friday that an Idaho hospital system must unwind its acquisition of the state's largest independent doctor group, a decision that could have significant implications as health-care providers nationwide increasingly ...

BEIJING—China announced Friday that President Xi Jinping will head a new National Security Commission that analysts say will tighten his control of the military, domestic security and foreign policy, and attempt to enhance coordination over ...

KPMG LLP agreed Friday to pay $8.2 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the Big Four accounting firm violated rules intended to keep outside auditors from getting too close to their clients.

Comcast Corp. is much more likely to work with Charter Communications Inc. on a bid for Time Warner Cable Inc. than to pursue an offer on its own, said a person familiar with the situation, a major boost to Charter's hopes of winning the ...

DirecTV chief executive Mike White says the Weather Channel is worth only "one quarter of the price" the channel wants the satellite operator to pay, underlining how far apart the companies are in the fee dispute that has blacked the ...

WASHINGTON—U.S. officials say they are seeking assurances from Japan that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won't repeat a visit to a war shrine that angered China and South Korea and they will ask Mr. Abe to reaffirm Tokyo's previous apologies ...

A trouble shared is a trouble halved, or so the saying goes. But the troubles are piling up quickly for emerging markets.Jitters about China, the meltdown in the Turkish lira, violent protests in Ukraine and the plummeting Argentine ...

The 81-year-old doctor at the heart of the government's insider trading case against Mathew Martoma took some lumps during his week on the witness stand, but was steadfast that he illegally tipped the former SAC Capital Advisors LP ...

The latest state to challenge monopoly union power is Pennsylvania, where the legislature is debating a "paycheck protection" bill banning automatic dues payments. A political brawl is breaking out, though the Republican Governor has so far ...

Milwaukee city officials, from the Common Council to the school board, are working together to block high-performing private and charter schools from buying the vacant, unused school buildings that the city owns. Their stubborn negligence ...

Dear Warren Buffett,I heard about you teaming up with Quicken Loans to offer the "Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge." One billion dollars goes to the lucky person who can correctly predict the entire bracket for the 2014 NCAA men's ...

Skowhegan, MaineThis New England town of fewer than 9,000 souls isn't expecting a throng Monday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of an event sadly lost to history, native daughter Margaret Chase Smith's announcement that she would seek ...

Accellent Inc., a medical device manufacturer owned by private-equity firms KKR & Co. and Bain Capital LLC, is closing in on a deal to acquire rival Lake Region Medical Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

It is 1837 on a hot August afternoon in a Shaker schoolhouse. A group of young girls, struggling with their penmanship, try to remain alert. All of a sudden one of them leaps to her feet and begins to sway uncontrollably, wailing and ...

Many are the heroes in the annals of literature who have kept pigs. There is the noble swineherd Gurth from Scott's "Ivanhoe," Taran from Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles and, albeit less voluntarily, Augustus McCrae in "Lonesome Dove." ...

Each crossword puzzle is, in however small a way, an assertion about what counts as knowledge. It delineates a community, a "we," including some people and excluding others by virtue of the spheres of knowledge it addresses and the argots ...

The death toll from a deadly fire that swept through a seniors' home in a small Quebec community rose to eight people Friday, but investigators kept the number of people still unaccounted for at about 30.

There were roadshows—high-priced, reserved-seat, two-show-a-day runs of extra-special movies—almost as soon as there were full-length features. D.W. Griffith presented the East Coast premiere of "The Birth of a Nation," in 1915, at the ...

The Japanese yen rose to a seven-week high against the dollar and the Swiss franc also rallied Friday, as investors fled emerging market currencies on concerns that growth in many developing nations will slow dramatically.

CHARLESTON, W.Va.—A company controlled by a Pennsylvania coal-mining executive paid $20 million last month to acquire Freedom Industries Inc., the firm at the center of a chemical spill that authorities said tainted the water supply for ...

MEXICO CITY—Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico's best-known leftist leader and an unsuccessful presidential candidate, is getting close to registering a new political party that could further fragment a divided left ahead of midterm ...

'One Simple Idea' is a history of the positive thinking or "New Thought" movement, originating in America in the 19th century and continuing in various forms up to the present day. Mitch Horowitz calls it the "most enduring effort in modern ...

During the Communist era, the British specialized in producing upper-class spies for Stalin (the MI6 officer Kim Philby, the art historian Anthony Blunt), just as they produced aristocratic eccentrics. Ivor Montagu, an offspring of the ...

By Jacques Lusseyran (1963)1. Samuel Clemens, friend of Helen Keller, said: "Blindness is an exciting business. If you don't believe it, get up some dark night on the wrong side of your bed when the house is on fire and try to find the ...

Georges Picquart, the narrator of "An Officer and a Spy" (Knopf, 429 pages, $27.95), Robert Harris's superb historical thriller set mostly in France before and after the turn of the 20th century, is a sophisticated Parisian: He reads ...

Georges Picquart, the narrator of "An Officer and a Spy" (Knopf, 429 pages, $27.95), Robert Harris's superb historical thriller set mostly in France before and after the turn of the 20th century, is a sophisticated Parisian: He reads ...

The bitter weather gripping great swaths of the United States makes rather a good backdrop for a present-day fairy tale that practically sparkles with its own icy menace. Readers in warmer regions will have to use their imaginations, of ...

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Friday that banks in the euro zone have taken significant steps to shore up their balance sheets, an indication that the central bank's ongoing check of banks' health is unlikely to be ...

ROME—Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta tried to speed up his government's executive action, saying his cabinet on Friday agreed to sell a minority stake in the postal service and also offered what he described as a last-chance opportunity ...

LONDON—The Rio Tinto PLC-led group planning to mine iron ore from part of Guinea's Simandou mountain range will be expected to stick to a "rigorous" schedule to ensure one of the world's largest mining projects finally comes to fruition ...

QUITO—Growth in Ecuador's banking sector will likely continue to be affected this year, as President Rafael Correa's administration looks to pass stricter regulations following a series of other rule changes that have been implemented since ...

Remember when the president blamed the public's disdain for ObamaCare on a bad sales job? Well, that's now the excuse being given for why Latinos aren't buying health insurance on the ObamaCare exchanges.

Last March, the Republican National Committee released at 97-page analysis of what went wrong strategically in the 2012 presidential contest. One finding was that Mitt Romney spent too much time debating Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich ...

DAVOS, Switzerland—Ignazio Visco, the governor of the Bank of Italy, on Friday said he doesn't expect a coming asset-quality review to have "dramatic effects" on Italian banks or spark a big wave of mergers and acquisitions.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. reported a better-than-expected 6% rise in fourth-quarter revenue and a 9% rise in adjusted earnings, benefiting from a portfolio of cancer therapies the company said it was aiming to expand.

GENEVA—Delegates representing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition have agreed to meet face-to-face over the weekend, the United Nations' top mediator in the peace talks said Friday, in a push to settle days of ...

Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen is again fighting with a group of hedge funds that hold LightSquared's bank debt, this time over which side should be providing a short-term bankruptcy loan to keep LightSquared afloat.

ZURICH—Nestlé SA Friday said it will spend $1 billion to build two new factories in Mexico, a move that underscores the Swiss food company's efforts to bolster its presence in fast-growing emerging markets.

DAVOS, Switzerland—European Union economics chief Olli Rehn on Friday called on the European Central Bank to act on its 2% inflation target, warning that very low inflation in the euro area doesn't support the bloc's nascent economic ...

MILAN—Italy's parliament gave a green light to a new law on Friday that revalues the capital of the Bank of Italy, which is mostly owned by Italian commercial banks, and sets a 3% limit on stakes that individual investors can own in the ...

Winton Capital Management, the fourth largest European hedge fund by assets under management, is planning to open a U.S. office in the summer, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is part of a broader global expansion that ...

Campbell Soup Co. on Friday said Chief Financial Officer Craig Owens will retire on May 1 and be succeeded by Anthony P. DiSilvestro.Mr. Owens, 59 years old, has served as finance chief and chief administrative officer since 2008 and helped ...

Kansas City Southern offered a disappointing earnings growth outlook for the just-started year as the regional railroad operator reported weaker coal volumes and longer project lead times weighed on its fourth-quarter results.

A judge granted final approval Friday for bankruptcy financing for Fisker Automotive Inc., a failed maker of luxury hybrid autos that is being fought over by China's Wanxiang Group and Hybrid Tech Holdings, a company associated with Hong ...

RIO DE JANEIRO—The group of oil companies exploring Brazil's largest offshore discovery will spend between $400 million and $500 million on the field in 2014, consortium leader Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, said late Thursday.

FRANKFURT—Major central banks in Europe and Asia are gradually winding down an anti-crisis tool that ensured a steady supply of U.S. dollar funds to financial institutions in times of stress, the European Central Bank said Friday.

DAVOS, Switzerland—French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici described a new package of economic measures proposed this month as a "game changer," needed to prevent a slow decline of the French economy.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. said its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled on organic sales growth and lower costs.The consumer-products company has reported strong sales of high-margin products such as Kleenex tissue and Cottonelle toilet paper ...

Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney said Friday that regulators must "fix the mechanics" of interest-rate and foreign-exchange benchmarks, but that those changes won't work unless banks and traders reform their behavior.

Food maker Mondelez International Inc. increased the maximum amount of debt it would buy back in a tender offer, raising the limit to $1.56 billion from $1 billion, after the offer was oversubscribed as of the early tender date.

Global Payments Inc. said it has agreed to acquire Payment Processing Inc. for $420 million in cash as the credit-card processor looks to expand its direct distribution and boost growth in certain regions.

KAMPALA, Uganda—The government of Uganda has reached a deal with foreign oil companies to develop its oil industry, the country's energy and minerals minister said Friday, ending a nearly three-year impasse and opening the way for a $15 ...

UBS, which recently signaled its intention to hire senior executives, has appointed two former Morgan Stanley bankers to lead its Russian operations, according to an internal memo seen by The Wall Street Journal.

SÃO PAULO—Recent signs indicate that the Brazilian Central Bank's monetary policy is working after an unpleasant inflation surprise last year, said central bank President Alexandre Tombini during a panel at the World Economic Forum in ...

WARSAW—Poland's currency is safeguarded from market turbulence despite its current weakness because the country's economy is viewed as stable and it will grow robustly again this year, while monetary policy is conservative, a central banker ...

DAVOS, Switzerland—South Korea's central bank governor said any further depreciation of the Japanese yen would cause widespread pain to South Korean exporters, but he ruled out a competitive devaluation of the won as a response.

Covidien PLC said its fiscal first-quarter earnings fell 19% as increased expenses at the medical-supplies company masked a rise in sales.Covidien—a maker of operating-room gear, generic drugs and other medical supplies—has generally seen ...

AMSTERDAM—Dutch cable company Ziggo NV said Friday talks with Liberty Global PLC about a potential takeover are progressing, as it reported a 13% jump in fourth-quarter net profit and said it expects operating profit for 2014 at the same ...

SHANGHAI—Shares of Shaanxi Coal Industry Co. will start trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Tuesday after the Chinese coal miner raised 4 billion yuan ($661 million) in the country's largest initial public offering since the country ...

DAVOS, Switzerland—Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Mark Bertolini on Friday said that the evolution of the U.S. health-insurance market will soon push insurers to spend billions more on marketing to consumers.

ROME—Retail sales in Italy were unchanged in November compared with the previous month and barely rose from November a year earlier as rising food prices and fiscal austerity kept a firm lid on consumer purchases in the euro zone's ...

MissouriCourt Blocks RestrictionsOn Health-Law HelpersA federal court temporarily blocked Missouri officials from restricting organizations in the state from helping people sign up for health insurance as part of the federal health-care ...

Georges Picquart, the narrator of "An Officer and a Spy" (Knopf, 429 pages, $27.95), Robert Harris's superb historical thriller set mostly in France before and after the turn of the 20th century, is a sophisticated Parisian: He reads ...

The bitter weather gripping great swaths of the United States makes rather a good backdrop for a present-day fairy tale that practically sparkles with its own icy menace. Readers in warmer regions will have to use their imaginations, of ...

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Friday that banks in the euro zone have taken significant steps to shore up their balance sheets, an indication that the central bank's ongoing check of banks' health is unlikely to be ...

ROME—Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta tried to speed up his government's executive action, saying his cabinet on Friday agreed to sell a minority stake in the postal service and also offered what he described as a last-chance opportunity ...

LONDON—The Rio Tinto PLC-led group planning to mine iron ore from part of Guinea's Simandou mountain range will be expected to stick to a "rigorous" schedule to ensure one of the world's largest mining projects finally comes to fruition ...

QUITO—Growth in Ecuador's banking sector will likely continue to be affected this year, as President Rafael Correa's administration looks to pass stricter regulations following a series of other rule changes that have been implemented since ...

Remember when the president blamed the public's disdain for ObamaCare on a bad sales job? Well, that's now the excuse being given for why Latinos aren't buying health insurance on the ObamaCare exchanges.

Last March, the Republican National Committee released at 97-page analysis of what went wrong strategically in the 2012 presidential contest. One finding was that Mitt Romney spent too much time debating Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich ...

DAVOS, Switzerland—Ignazio Visco, the governor of the Bank of Italy, on Friday said he doesn't expect a coming asset-quality review to have "dramatic effects" on Italian banks or spark a big wave of mergers and acquisitions.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. reported a better-than-expected 6% rise in fourth-quarter revenue and a 9% rise in adjusted earnings, benefiting from a portfolio of cancer therapies the company said it was aiming to expand.

GENEVA—Delegates representing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition have agreed to meet face-to-face over the weekend, the United Nations' top mediator in the peace talks said Friday, in a push to settle days of ...

Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen is again fighting with a group of hedge funds that hold LightSquared's bank debt, this time over which side should be providing a short-term bankruptcy loan to keep LightSquared afloat.

ZURICH—Nestlé SA Friday said it will spend $1 billion to build two new factories in Mexico, a move that underscores the Swiss food company's efforts to bolster its presence in fast-growing emerging markets.

DAVOS, Switzerland—European Union economics chief Olli Rehn on Friday called on the European Central Bank to act on its 2% inflation target, warning that very low inflation in the euro area doesn't support the bloc's nascent economic ...

MILAN—Italy's parliament gave a green light to a new law on Friday that revalues the capital of the Bank of Italy, which is mostly owned by Italian commercial banks, and sets a 3% limit on stakes that individual investors can own in the ...

Winton Capital Management, the fourth largest European hedge fund by assets under management, is planning to open a U.S. office in the summer, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is part of a broader global expansion that ...

Campbell Soup Co. on Friday said Chief Financial Officer Craig Owens will retire on May 1 and be succeeded by Anthony P. DiSilvestro.Mr. Owens, 59 years old, has served as finance chief and chief administrative officer since 2008 and helped ...

Kansas City Southern offered a disappointing earnings growth outlook for the just-started year as the regional railroad operator reported weaker coal volumes and longer project lead times weighed on its fourth-quarter results.

A judge granted final approval Friday for bankruptcy financing for Fisker Automotive Inc., a failed maker of luxury hybrid autos that is being fought over by China's Wanxiang Group and Hybrid Tech Holdings, a company associated with Hong ...

RIO DE JANEIRO—The group of oil companies exploring Brazil's largest offshore discovery will spend between $400 million and $500 million on the field in 2014, consortium leader Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, said late Thursday.

FRANKFURT—Major central banks in Europe and Asia are gradually winding down an anti-crisis tool that ensured a steady supply of U.S. dollar funds to financial institutions in times of stress, the European Central Bank said Friday.

DAVOS, Switzerland—French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici described a new package of economic measures proposed this month as a "game changer," needed to prevent a slow decline of the French economy.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. said its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled on organic sales growth and lower costs.The consumer-products company has reported strong sales of high-margin products such as Kleenex tissue and Cottonelle toilet paper ...

Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney said Friday that regulators must "fix the mechanics" of interest-rate and foreign-exchange benchmarks, but that those changes won't work unless banks and traders reform their behavior.

Food maker Mondelez International Inc. increased the maximum amount of debt it would buy back in a tender offer, raising the limit to $1.56 billion from $1 billion, after the offer was oversubscribed as of the early tender date.

Global Payments Inc. said it has agreed to acquire Payment Processing Inc. for $420 million in cash as the credit-card processor looks to expand its direct distribution and boost growth in certain regions.

KAMPALA, Uganda—The government of Uganda has reached a deal with foreign oil companies to develop its oil industry, the country's energy and minerals minister said Friday, ending a nearly three-year impasse and opening the way for a $15 ...

UBS, which recently signaled its intention to hire senior executives, has appointed two former Morgan Stanley bankers to lead its Russian operations, according to an internal memo seen by The Wall Street Journal.

SÃO PAULO—Recent signs indicate that the Brazilian Central Bank's monetary policy is working after an unpleasant inflation surprise last year, said central bank President Alexandre Tombini during a panel at the World Economic Forum in ...

WARSAW—Poland's currency is safeguarded from market turbulence despite its current weakness because the country's economy is viewed as stable and it will grow robustly again this year, while monetary policy is conservative, a central banker ...

DAVOS, Switzerland—South Korea's central bank governor said any further depreciation of the Japanese yen would cause widespread pain to South Korean exporters, but he ruled out a competitive devaluation of the won as a response.

Covidien PLC said its fiscal first-quarter earnings fell 19% as increased expenses at the medical-supplies company masked a rise in sales.Covidien—a maker of operating-room gear, generic drugs and other medical supplies—has generally seen ...

AMSTERDAM—Dutch cable company Ziggo NV said Friday talks with Liberty Global PLC about a potential takeover are progressing, as it reported a 13% jump in fourth-quarter net profit and said it expects operating profit for 2014 at the same ...

SHANGHAI—Shares of Shaanxi Coal Industry Co. will start trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Tuesday after the Chinese coal miner raised 4 billion yuan ($661 million) in the country's largest initial public offering since the country ...

DAVOS, Switzerland—Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Mark Bertolini on Friday said that the evolution of the U.S. health-insurance market will soon push insurers to spend billions more on marketing to consumers.

ROME—Retail sales in Italy were unchanged in November compared with the previous month and barely rose from November a year earlier as rising food prices and fiscal austerity kept a firm lid on consumer purchases in the euro zone's ...

MissouriCourt Blocks RestrictionsOn Health-Law HelpersA federal court temporarily blocked Missouri officials from restricting organizations in the state from helping people sign up for health insurance as part of the federal health-care ...